Today, the coral processing continued for genetic, isotope, and reproductive studies, which has been very intensive for the last two days and nights. During the daylight hours, the divers collected samples of the coral in shallow water (30 meters) and during the nighttime hours ROV Kraken 2 collected the coral samples from the deep (210 meters).

Chief Scientist Rhian Waller tells me that the coral processing work will slow down for a few days because we are leaving the known sampling sites and heading into the unknown. Unknown territory for Primnoa pacifica, that is.

According to Rhian, the most important task today has been the completion of this collection series for Primnoa pacifica (Red Tree Coral). With both shallow and deep samples, geneticist Cheryl Morrison will be able to map the spreading patterns of the Red Tree Coral in Glacier Bay!

There were a total of four exploratory dives today. The divers are having a blast! They wore GoPro cameras on their helmets and used “underwater scooters” to go faster and farther during their dive time constraints. A scooter is a handheld engine with a propeller that pulls a diver behind it. Bob Stone describes it to be like sledding underwater!

In addition to the Red Tree Coral, they’ve brought up some really interesting specimens, which include sea stars, nudibranchs, shrimps-one very pregnant shrimp loaded with eggs, a polychaete worm, a bioluminescent ctenophore, sea pens, and sponges.

A sea star and a nudibranch with its tentatcles out

Mary holds a nudibranch

A shrimp and a polychaete worm

Yellow sponge

On one of the dive outings, they took Qanuk and sat him on an iceberg! It was a really beautiful blue iceberg. Blue icebergs have ice crystals that are more tightly packed therefore they reflect more blue light wavelengths than other colors of wavelengths.

This evening, scientists are once again gathered around the monitor to see what the ROV Kraken 2 will discover. So far, we’ve seen crabs, goose barnacles feeding on plankton floating in the water, anemones, poacher sturgeon, sea cucumbers and moon snails. Sounds like a yummy salad, doesn’t it?

Bob looks at the live ROV feed

In this view of ROV live video feed, we see a Tanner crab (cousin of the snow crab)

Personal Log

Today everyone settled into their jobs and it was a smooth operation. The scientists and crew are still brimming with excitement about the possibilities for this voyage. I was glad to get the intensive coral processing completed. Though it’s very important work, it’s tedious and repetitive. One very nice bi-product of working with the coral is the scent. Red Tree Coral smell like cucumbers! Also, we get to see all the other curious types of samples brought aboard such as glowing ctenophores and jumping shrimp! I’m getting to see so many things I’ve never seen before and it’s wonderful to have experts help explain everything. They are genuinely interested in sharing knowledge with me in hopes that I will take it back to the classroom for my students in Scammon Bay. Scammon Bay kids have become important to these world-class scientists! Another cool thing about these scientists, even though they are experts in their fields, they are also eager students for learning something new. Enthusiastic lifelong learners— what an inspiration!